New Dengeki translations highlight the experience of playing Final Fantasy XIV

If you've been following the leadup to Final Fantasy XIV's release faithfully, you can no doubt rattle off a surprising amount of information regarding the systems and the world's lore. But unless you're lucky enough to be in the alpha, you can't say much about what the experience of actually playing the game is like. While there are certainly plenty of us in the same boat, the most recent alpha test article from Dengeki seems aimed at precisely that -- rather than focusing on the facts of the game, the editors have focused on the actual feel of playing in the game's world.

Translated by FFXIVCore, the newest information gives some facts we hadn't heard before, such as the specifics of setting the difficulty on Guildleves based on party strength and the time limits involved. For the most part, though, it's focused on the actual moment-to-moment experience of taking part in gameplay, and the overall impression seems to be a positive one. There's no real antidote for not yet being involved in the testing of Final Fantasy XIV, but reading the translations does help take the edge off.